Job Discussion Forums

noyb · Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Posts: 93

This just in ...

The Education Bureau in Guangdong has supposedly just ordered that all educational institutions, public or private, with an enrollment of more than 50 students must remained closed from May 1st until May 10th.

Roger, heard anything about that?

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

If it's just been announced then it must be news to my boss too! She gave me off beginning April 30 through May 5th. On Tuesday, May 6th, I am supposed to report back for work.
If I do get a telephone call informing me otherwise, I shall inform you via this forum.
Over to
Peter in Shenzhen, and Les haris in Shantou:
Any news in your place?

chinasyndrome · Posted: Sun May 04, 2003 10:41 am Post subject:

Hi Roger, noyb, and others.

I just put a call through to the chairman of my school and also to the HK director responsible for it. Neither of them knew anything about it, but if the directive was given over the weekend it's possible that the news hasn't caught up with them yet. They're now doing the whiparound so if it's out there I should hear about it soon.

Thanks for the post; if nothing comes of it tonight I'll look into it first thing in the morning and get back to you as soon as possible.

Cheers and keep well!

Les
Shantou

noyb · Joined: 22 Feb 2003 Posts: 93

Yeah, not like things don't change here unexpectedly.

I heard the same thing from another person, but he qualified it with the closure pertaining only to after-school hours classes and not mainstream primary and secondary schools and not government universities.

chinasyndrome · Posted: Mon May 05, 2003 1:59 am Post subject:

What ho, chaps!

I spoke to higher-ups at the school and also at the education bureau this morning. Here's what I got.

There IS a paper just issued on this topic, but it is a discussion paper and not a set-in-stone guideline. Essentially, they're saying that more people traveled during the May holiday than hoped, so the risk of someone bringing home SARS may have increased.

They only floated the idea of closures to protect the students, because they think isolation may cause more panic than it's worth. Each school is being asked to consider their own position and talk to the bureau if they're going to make any changes to schedules.

Now that's only the deal for Shantou, and we all know that one size doesn't fit all in China, so it may be of little use to others in the province.

Our students are back tomorrow and it's business as usual.

Cheers and keep well.

Les
Shantou

Steven C · Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 7 Location: Guangzhou, China

Our Director of Studies has just informed us that our centre has been ordered by the district's Education Board to cancel all classes. I work in Tain He district, GZ. The Education Board even mentioned that they will have staff randomly come around to check if we are still conducting classes.